FDA May Hold the Key to Holding Down Drug Costs

Pharmaceutical companies are back in the hot seat. Earlier criticism focused on expensive, newly developed drugs for cancer and hepatitis C. Now censure is directed at companies that buy old drugs with few therapeutic alternatives and impose enormous price increases. 

Critics cite this behavior as evidence that the drug market does not work and needs additional regulation. The critics are both right and wrong: The current market, hobbled by inefficient regulation, does not work, but the solution is better, not more, regulation. And, unlike the earlier criticisms of drug companies, here public outrage is justified and helpful.